Where in the World are Aimes and Hobbes?: April 2008

It has been said many times before, but is worth saying again, Easter weekend means camping... although Easter 2008 pushed the limits by arriving before the end of March. Nevertheless, despite weather forecasts for rain, wind, sleet, snow, we left London...Hobbes in a positive mood (Amy was a little more dubious) as we headed for Snowdonia.

Not a bad view to awake to! A pretty Yorkshire morning.

The route provided a brief opportunity for a drive through the Cotswolds (along with the rest of the west Midland's population) under sunny skies giving us hope that the weather forecasters had been mistaken... unfortunately a few hours later on arriving at our campsite things weren't looking quite as positive, as although the rain was holding off, the wind was a little strong... anyways, after checking in at the pub (which disappointingly wasn't in the campsite but some half a mile up the road) and initially thinking we were the only fools camping, our spirits were raised by the sight of a number of other tents and we set about trying to pitch ours...

Conway castle and the walled town beyond

Conway Castle from Conway Castle

This was not as easy as it should have been due to the "strong breeze", which required one person to lie on the fly while it was pegged down... eventually having pitched and feathered the tent, we headed back up the road to the pub for dinner and a couple of pints to brace us for the night ahead... our concerns were raised when we pulled up and the campsite and the car began to rock in the now slightly stronger "breeze", these concerns proved to be well founded as the "breeze" continued throughout the night, generally arriving in gusts spaced a few minutes apart which sounded a little too much like a train rapidly advancing up the valley.

The picturesque campground at the foot of Mount Snowdon (well in other weather conditions perhaps)

Aimes was reluctant to leave the tent... with good reason

As this continued throughout the night, resulting in the tent seeming like it had been shaken by several people every few minutes, not much sleep was had... though on awaking in the morning, we realised that we had fared better than many of our fellow campers, who had parts of their tents located in the surrounding trees (so many lessons were learnt on that night on Bogong!).

Snow fight!

A snowy Old Byland in the North Yorkshire Moors

Anyways, we started to think that perhaps it wasn't the weekend for camping, Sid and Simone graciously offered us warm shelter from the elements at their cottage up in the North Yorkshire Moors. However, before heading across to the other side of the country we tried to see as much of the spectacular Snowdonia scenery that we could. After breakfast in Betws-y-coed, a stop in Conway, we caught up with Kate and Andy (who had driven across for the day) in Caernarfon.

Archie

Hobbes and Oliver working on the important things, there was even enough snow for a poor effort at a snowman

Aimes hanging with the boys

After a much more relaxing night in front of the fire, next morning we awoke to a slightly more positive sight of a good 6 inches of snow. Having failed at our attempts at snowman building and having been defeated in the snow fight by Oliver, we decided to do yet more driving, heading up to Whitby (home of James Cook and Dracula) via the spectacle of snow covered Riveaux Abbey.

Aimes and Oliver brave the wind in Whitby

James Cook looking out from Whitby towards Australia

The ruins of the glorious Riveaux Abbey

Riveaux Abbey

As the wind had followed us across the country to Whitby our stay was short, leaving us barely enough time for some baked herrings and periwinkles, before starting back for London. After a stop in York to check out the Minster, Shambles and Clifford's Tower (and a quick half by the River Ouse), we continued on finally making it back home before midnight, having covered some 900 unscheduled miles in 3 days (not an easy task in a place as small as the UK).